As many regular readers of our blog know—we are fans of celebration and having a vision for your “future life”. Looking back on the past year and explicitly recognizing accomplishments and hardships that we have overcome gives us an opportunity for celebration as well as a forum for helpful self-talk. Every step we take is part of an on-going journey of self-development—we can’t wait until we are “done” to recognize our accomplishments and growth, we’ll never get there! It is heartening to develop a practice of recognizing our efforts and accomplishments as we go along.
After the reflection and appreciation, think about the year ahead, not in pass/fail tactics (e.g. I will go to the gym 5 days/ week) but what are a few things you want to develop in your life? What is a direction that you would like to lean into for the coming year? The conscious naming, the acknowledgment to yourself of what you yearn for in your life creates energy that pulls you toward what you want and will give you an opportunity for some more helpful self-talk when you do this again next year!
Here is how you can set the stage for continuing success.
Reflection: Take 30 minutes or so and reflect on the accomplishments of the past year. A great structure for undertaking such a reflection was offered in an earlier blog https://www.peghuntcoaching.com/post/sharing-the-spice-of-life. Alternatively, you could simply make a list of accomplishments and milestones. Savoring the accomplishments of the past year is key—as we tell our clients, “Breathe it in,” and we mean that literally. For each accomplishment, breath it in, imagine putting that accomplishment into your body somewhere (if your soul had pockets, where would you put each accomplishment?). You might even want to give a name to last year— “2024 The Year of ______.”
Appreciation: Spend a full day or even a week to be in a place of gratitude to your past-self for all that it did in 2024 toward maintaining your life and creating the foundation for the year ahead.
Vision Creation: As you stand at the dawn of new year, what would make this year the best year possible? How do you want to feel (physically, emotionally)? What do you want more of? Less of? What is important about these things that you want to put your energy toward now? If you move toward what is calling you now, what will happen? How would that change your life? Write a list or draw some pictures that represent what you most hope for in the coming year. This exercise is an invitation to describe the direction(s) you would like to move in—this allows you to call on lots of different tactics, depending on what is going on and will help you keep moving in the direction that calls.
As an example, one of the authors set her the intention last year to (1) to deepen her meditation practice (2) further develop her life in Seattle (after moving a few years ago from the suburbs) and (3) to sustain her vibrant coaching practice. Looking back, she can see her progress. She regularly attended a weekly meditation group and several day-long meditation retreats. She started volunteering at the meditation center which both deepened her commitment to meditation and helped her develop her Seattle life. She attended more Seattle events and built friendships with current neighbors. She worked with a marketing coach to expand her coaching business, updated her website, and passed her Professional Coaching Certification. The biggest challenge for her was making the difficult decision to move her mom to full-time memory care. This was emotionally draining, and for months it impacted her energy for other things. Despite setbacks she still made progress on the goals she set. Setting intentions helped her focus and follow through. As she thinks about the year ahead, her goal is to deepen what was started last year. She can’t wait!
We hope you take the time to do all three steps: reflect, appreciate, and create a vision. By doing this, you can see where you have been and what you have done. The iterative process of reflection, appreciation and creation helps because you can see your progress. This is a wonderful exercise on your own, but it is even more powerful with a coach because articulating what is important and sharing it helps us see things differently and stay the course and makes the celebration that much sweeter. Set up a free session to check out coaching, at info@peghuntcoaching.com.
© Anne Garing, PhD & Peg Hunt, MS
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